


waterfalls

by callunavulgari



Series: Holiday Writing Challenge '12 [17]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Post Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 16:59:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/600055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/pseuds/callunavulgari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They meet Toph in the center of the city and she greets them with friendly punches and loud, braying laughter that makes Zuko miss them all with a fierceness that he only feels during times like this, when they’ve all managed to gather in the same place at the same time. It makes him long for the days when they could all curl together on Appa’s back, the wind biting at their skin and eyes—before each of them became the faces of the nations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	waterfalls

**Author's Note:**

> Day 17 of the Holiday Writing Challenge on tumblr [over here](http://giraffe-tier.tumblr.com/post/35469673249/winter-drawing-writing-challenge). Prompt was 'snow shoveling'. This was supposed to be something cutesy with Katara, Aang, and Zuko competing to see who could get the most snow shoveled the fastest, but uh, turns out the premise of the story just got a mention, and I tried too hard to explain life between TLA and TLoK. So er, yeah. Whoops.

As a rule, the Fire Nation doesn’t tend to get much snow. Every blue moon during the coldest months of the year they’ll get some flurries, but it melts before it hits the ground. The ruins of the old air temples get snow in the winter months—the ice coating the marble pillars, long icicles hanging from the roof. But Aang has long since given up on restoring them, too many ghosts lurking their halls—a relic to the past and nothing more.  
  
The Earth Kingdom, though, manages to get snow for the last few months of winter—clogging the streets with slush and forcing its inhabitants to don warmer clothes.  
  
Republic City comes to life the year that Aang turns thirty. At the start, it’s just a jungle of concrete buildings and steel pipes—a place of neutrality where benders and non-benders can come together and live in peace.  
  
They’re all there for its opening—Katara and Sokka arriving from the poles separately. With Sokka comes a heavily pregnant Suki, who smiles and hugs him when she sees him. Katara brings a widely smiling Aang with her—the both of them sending Zuko the same affectionate glance that he knows to mean that once they’re out of sight of the public they’re going to tackle him into a mound of pillows and not let him up until he presses kisses to both of their cheeks.  
  
They meet Toph in the center of the city and she greets them with friendly punches and loud, braying laughter that makes Zuko miss them all with a fierceness that he only feels during times like this, when they’ve all managed to gather in the same place at the same time. It makes him long for the days when they could all curl together on Appa’s back, the wind biting at their hair and eyes—before each of them became the faces of the nations. Before Sokka become the chief of the southern tribe and Katara the ambassador—before Zuko became the Fire Lord and Toph started improving the Earth Kingdom’s security. There was no before for Aang—he has always been the Avatar. But now, being the Avatar means something different. Being Aang has a different meaning.  
  
After they’ve opened the city properly—made speeches and held babies, they retreat to Air Temple Island, sharing jokes and drinking tea—feeling like a family for the first time in years.  
  
The kids are at that age where they’re everywhere at once, constantly underfoot, so they don’t get much downtime, but once the others have retired to bed—the kids all asleep in their rooms, Zuko retreats to bed with Katara and Aang—lets them press him down into the sheets between them, their lips on his skin.  
  
When they wake in the morning they’ll compete to see who can rid the walkways of the most snow and Aang will win, as he always does, because he’s a dirty cheater. They will have a chance to play with the children—Kya nearly thirteen and just as mouthy as her mother had been in her teens, Bumi a rambunctious eleven, and Tenzin a strangely quiet eight. They will be a family for a day, and then they will return to being the faces of each of the nations.  
  
For now, Zuko sighs as Aang kisses his way down his chest, Katara’s hands soft at his waist.  
  
He closes his eyes.


End file.
